Tony Award for Best Musical
The Tony Award for Best Musical is given annually to the best new Broadway musical, as determined by Tony Award voters. The award is one of the ceremony's longest-standing awards, having been presented each year since 1949. The award goes to the producers of the winning musical. A musical is eligible for consideration in a given year if it has not previously been produced on Broadway and is not "determined... to be a 'classic' or in the historical or popular repertoire", otherwise it may be considered for Best Revival of a Musical.[1]
| Tony Award for Best Musical | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Best Musical |
| Location | New York City |
| Presented by | American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League |
| Currently held by | Hadestown (2019) |
| Website | TonyAwards.com |
Best Musical is the final award presented at the Tony Awards ceremony. Excerpts from the musicals that are nominated for this award are usually performed during the ceremony before this award is presented.
This is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Musical.
Winners and nominees[2]
† marks winners of the annual Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
*marks finalists for the annual Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
1940s
| Year | Musical | Book | Music | Lyrics |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 3rd Tony Awards | ||||
| Kiss Me, Kate | Bella & Samuel Spewack | Cole Porter | ||
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
| Year | Musical | Book | Music | Lyrics |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 Postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic |
N/A | |||
Records
Accumulated records as of 2019:[3]
- The Producers has won the most Tonys, winning in 12 categories, including Best Musical.
- Hamilton is the most-nominated production in Tony history, with 16 nominations.
- The Sound of Music and Fiorello! are the only two musicals to date to have ever tied for the Best Musical award (in 1960).
- Passion is the shortest-running winner, with 280 performances.
- The Phantom of the Opera is the longest-running Best Musical winner, with 16 previews and 13,214 performances as of 27 October 2019.
- Hallelujah, Baby! is the only show thus far to have won the Tony Award for Best Musical after closing.
- Fun Home is the first musical written entirely by a team of women to win the Tony Award for Best Musical.
- Kiss Me, Kate and Titanic are the only two shows to win the Tony Award for Best Musical without any Tony nominations in the acting categories. (In Kiss Me, Kate's case, only winners were announced that year, and only in the lead performance categories.)
- What is now the Richard Rodgers Theatre has housed more Best Musical winners than any other theater on Broadway: Guys and Dolls (1951), Damn Yankees (1956), Redhead (1959), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1962), 1776 (1969), Raisin (1974), Nine (1982), In the Heights (2008), and Hamilton (2016).
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood was the first winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical to be entirely written by one man, Rupert Holmes. Rent (by Jonathan Larson) and Hamilton (by Lin-Manuel Miranda) also achieved this feat. Hadestown is the first musical entirely written by one woman, Anaïs Mitchell, to win this award.
See also
- Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical
- Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical
- List of Tony Award and Olivier Award winning musicals
References
- Staff (undated). "Rules & Voting". tonyawards.com. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
- "Broadway Awards Search | IBDB". www.ibdb.com. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
- "Facts About the Tony Awards". Tony Legacy. The American Theatre Wing. 2016. Retrieved 2016-05-18.